Bikes, boats and buckets? Oh go on then, just the one..2 Dec 2009
|
|
| I'll just set the scene, I am writing this on my friend's laptop in a cafe on "Pub Street" in Siam Reap, Cambodia. We are currently travelling as a 4, Me, the aforementioned Will and Rich and an American girl called Lauren, who has sadly spent 3 days in bed trying to cling on to any liquid her body will allow her to, entirely missing Angkor Wat. The boys have gone off on bicycles and I am having a day off the touring and activities for a day of admin. This, we have realized is a necessary part of the travelling lifestyle. The need to upload photos alone is a mammoth and irksome task, I have already filled 6GB of memory cards and have to delete them to reuse. There is also bookings and friends to stay in touch with, today I'll be here with my coveted WiFi and laptop arrangement all afternoon simultaneously uploading literally hundreds of photos and writing my blog. I wish I had my own laptop. Anyway, enough of that.. I left you in Ho Chi Min City (Saigon), we spent some time in the zoo and botanical gardens which were very relaxing and had a couple of nights out in the city bars, which included a treat of some fellas knocking out some impressive breakdancing moves. I did not breakdance, in fact on this particular night I was playing connect 4 whilst this went on next to me if memory serves. Which it does cause I was also drinking diet Coke. We shoe-horned 4 of us into a room with a double, a single and a mattress on the floor for $24 a night (about 4 pounds each). We consider this to be a little pricey actually. I really loved Saigon, so much more than Hanoi, although there are obvious similarities in the daftly heinous traffic and big city, I think it was perhaps my attitude that had changed. I was now accustomed and wise to the Vietnamese ways and had been travelling with a great group for some time. We visited the War Museum. These sorts of places are far from the clinical environments you'd get in the UK. They're gritty and really bring home the pain and suffering war inflicts on a country and its people. Many of the images on display were from the last rolls of film found on the bodies of journalists killed in the action. The next day we took a tour round the Mekong Delta which ended in a slow boat up the Mekong to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. I was feeling grim following the previous night's combination of a bit of wine, a likely geriatric sandwich and the standard challenges for a good night's sleep, a room full of 4 people with the air con being too high, too low or too noisy. An ominous toilet trip led to me necking 2 immodium at pace. Then I quite literally got my shit together and we set off. I've now managed to get some sort of skill in sleeping when I can, surprisingly all those on call shifts trained me well, even sleeping sat up leaning against a metal pole on a boat at one point. It's the kind of time where you're grateful to wake up to find dribble on your chin cause it means you actually got some sleep. A cloud of ropey made me somewhat apathetic towards the days' sights, but we saw the locals making coconut candy and I perked right up when presented with a pot of herbal tea and tropical fruits. This is my kind of food. It turns out my illness become a full on cold which I smuggled into Cambodia. Too many days staying up late, getting up early and persistent travelling.. It was a bit of a shame, but I took it as an opportunity to slow down a bit and give my body a break. We arrived in Phnom Penh.. We visited the killing fields and S-21 prison where Pol Pot saw to the murder of the educated population of Cambodia. Only 7 people survived.. A really tough day, but needed seeing, very rewarding and educational. They have left a lot of the remnants of what happened in the killing fields as it is. For example, you find yourself walking through patches of ground where victims clothes, bones and most poignantly, teeth are still embedded in the dirt, becoming visible when the ground wears down with rain.This is not the UK.. One of the pleasures of travelling is the flexibility to skip between cultural experiences and beach time so we booked a bus to the South coast of Cambodia, Kampot, Kep and Sihanoukville. We chartered a boat over to a place called Rabbit Island and spent 2 nights in bungalows on the beach. We celebrated Thanksgiving with our American friend Lauren by having roast chicken and baked potatoes and making hats with turkeys on the front out of old copies of Marie Claire. Sorry Mum, but I got terribly drunk on tequila and had to be put to bed. Er, apparently I had a really nice time. An absolute highlight of my trip so far was night swimming off Rabbit Island. All the lights and electricity go off at 11pm and when you swim in the sea, millions of plankton glow when they are disturbed. The result is that every move looks like you're waving a magic wand of fairy dust through the inky black water. We spent an hour splashing and swimming out in this, spellbound. Island life proved too tempting to resist, so a couple of us decided to hop over onto another one, Bamboo island after a night in Sihanoukville. There were a few bungalows and 2 bars and it was idyllic. We did cartwheels and leapfrogs on the beach and taught the local barman how to play 'Shithead'. I can't imagine there's many people back home who don't know, but Shithead is the universal card game of 6th form common rooms and holidays alike. I have now played this quite a bit.. Another overnight bus later (this one seemingly run by a gang of about 10 teenagers) and we were in Siam Reap. Our friends had sent us a tuk-tuk to pick us up from the bus at 5am, which was awesome as were dropped off in what looked like just a patch of red dirt to me, I would've had no clue how to go about finding a reliable guest house. We were so hard we went straight to Angkor Wat after dumping our bags. Amazing temples all quite different. One highlight was a temple that was quite ruined with trees rooted through it. They'd grown through the buildings yet looked like giant melted candles. Cambodia is a poor country, but I found the people to be (mostly) very nice, they seem to have a wicked sense of humour and they have the skill of pestering you into buying their souvenirs down to a fine art. They're pretty clever with it actually, but in good humour and a lot speak very good English. A beautiful country I could've spent more time in, although I've felt that about everywhere I've been so far. This where I had to leave my friends for the last month since Hanoi, I booked a bus to Bangkok ready for my flight to Goa the next day. As a final night together, we enjoyed forfeit shithead in the bar and buckets of Gin and Tonic for $5. It seems I'm not above it after all, but no one told me they did Gin and Tonic?! Awesome. |
Advertisement 
|
